Celebrating people who bring the Internet to life

Do You Believe in Magic?

November 18, 2013

To some it may seem like it could take a little magic to transform Africa into a global Internet leader in the next 10 years. Such doubters should be reminded that 2013 Internet Hall of Fame inductee Dr. Nii Quaynor, who is committed to making that transformation a reality, is indeed a magician.

Well, not precisely: He’s a computer science professor and the “Father of the Internet” in Africa. But Quaynor has been known to pull a few brightly colored handkerchiefs out of his “empty” sleeves at meetings of both the African Internet Numbers Information Center, one of the five Regional Internet Registries worldwide, and the African Network Operators Group, two of the organizations he founded. He’ll also do some card tricks for his students at Ghana’s University of Cape Coast, he says, “when they look like they’re falling asleep.”